'System failure' downs Vodafone network

500,000 punters hit this morning

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Vodafone suffered a massive system failure this morning leaving around half a million punters across the UK unable to use their phones.

One of Vodafone's servers went belly-up at around 9.00am today. As a result, around 500,000 of the mobilephoneco's 8.5m pay-as-you-go punters were unable to make or receive calls. The service was down for around three hours and was restored just before noon today.

A spokeswoman for the mobile giant confirmed that half a million of its Pay As You Talk punters "experienced difficulties making and receiving calls" this morning. This was a result of a "system failure", she said.